How To Beat Diabetes Burnout

How to Beat Diabetes Burnout

“I felt as if I couldn't do it anymore. So I didn't,” explains Sarah Kaye, a mother of two, now 31 years old, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a preschooler.
Sarah is talking about burnout. Diabetes burnout. The phrase can mean so many different things to anyone who lives with any type of diabetes, and it can be triggered by any number of events or by nothing more than the daily physical and mental burden of living this disease.
“In my own practice,” explains William Polonsky, MD, founder of the Diabetes Behavioral Institute and author of Diabetes Burnout. “I have met far too many people who, because of diabetes burnout, have chosen to ignore their diabetes for years or, in some cases, decades. They are male and female, young and old, new to diabetes and veterans of the disease. They are not bad, stupid, or weak people. They are normal folks who are struggling with diabetes for understandable reasons. And their struggles take many shapes.”
While some feel helpless and defeated by the disease, explains Dr. Polonsky, others’ burnout may be the result of denial an "never truly accepting the reality of diabetes in their lives."
But all forms, no matter the severity or the duration, qualify as burnout.
Checking Out
For Sarah, burnout is something she has endured at least five or six times in the past 27 years of pricking her fingers, counting carbs, taking insulin and hoping it’s somewhat close to the amount her pancreas would’ve given her in an effort to avoid frustrating high blood sugars and exhausting low blood sugars.
“I think of burnout as the Continue reading

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Diabetes: Tenth of adults at risk of disease by 2035

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Professor Rubino says increasing the number of operations would save the NHS money
Health experts are warning that one in 10 adults in the UK will be at risk of developing diabetes by 2035.
For the first time, Public Health England forecasts the number of people with the disease could top five million if obesity rates continue to increase.
About 90% of patients have type 2 diabetes, which is linked to being overweight.
A separate analysis says the cost of treating the UK's "diabetes epidemic" could soar to 17% of the NHS budget.
Experts are warning the burden of treating diabetes, especially new cases of type 2, could bankrupt the NHS.
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Paul Dibbins cut off two toes when they went gangrenous.
Statisticians at Public Health England have published a new forecast for the number of people who will develop diabetes in the coming years.
Their analysis includes type one, which is an auto-immune disease and accounts for about 10% of cases in the UK.
But the remaining 90% have type 2, which can be affected by where you come from and your family history, but in most cases is associated with being overweight.
In 2015, there were around 3.8 million people living with diabetes in England alone.
If obesity rates remain stable, Public Health England predicts that by 2035 that figure could have leapt to 4.9 million.
But if obesity rates increase by 3% every five years, an extra 263,000 people will have devel Continue reading

4. Lifestyle Management

Lifestyle management is a fundamental aspect of diabetes care and includes diabetes self-management education (DSME), diabetes self-management support (DSMS), nutrition therapy, physical activity, smoking cessation counseling, and psychosocial care. Patients and care providers should focus together on how to optimize lifestyle from the time of the initial comprehensive medical evaluation, throughout all subsequent evaluations and follow-up, and during the assessment of complications and management of comorbid conditions in order to enhance diabetes care.
DIABETES SELF-MANAGEMENT EDUCATION AND SUPPORT
Recommendations
In accordance with the national standards for diabetes self-management education and support, all people with diabetes should participate in diabetes self-management education to facilitate the knowledge, skills, and ability necessary for diabetes self-care and in diabetes self-management support to assist with implementing and sustaining skills and behaviors needed for ongoing self-management, both at diagnosis and as needed thereafter. B
Effective self-management and improved clinical outcomes, health status, and quality of life are key goals of diabetes self-management education and support that should be measured and monitored as part of routine care. C
Diabetes self-management education and support should be patient centered, respectful, and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values and should help guide clinical decisions. A
Diabetes self-management education and support programs have the necessary elements in their curricula to delay Continue reading

What Can’t Cure Diabetes

Spend 5 minutes on the internet and you are bound to come across an article, website, or video promising to “kill your diabetes” with some herb, spice, ritual, or rain dance of some sort. The only problem is– there is no cure for diabetes. There is no cure for type 1. There is no cure for type 2. There is treatment but no cure.
Social media and the internet have given rise to scammers and dangerous “homeopathic” alternatives to medicine, medicine that diabetics need to stay healthy and survive.
Here are some of the worst “cure” culprits.
Things That Won’t Cure Diabetes #1: Cinnamon
While cinnamon has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity in some studies, it does not cure diabetes. It doesn’t repair beta cell dysfunction or remove the metabolic disorder from your body. People often confuse potential benefits of a product with cure. This confusion has been capitalized on by advertisers and marketers who know diabetics are desperate for a cure.
Cinnamon is not a cure and personally, I prefer cinnamon for my toast, not my diabetes.
Things That Won’t Cure Diabetes #2: Okra Water
There was a huge explosion on the internet when this post below surfaced claiming okra soaked in water magically frees you of your diabetes.
While okra does contain soluble fiber which helps slow digestion, it most definitely does not cure diabetes. Do you know what plays the role of insulin? Insulin. Nothing else. If you require insulin, you require insulin. There are specific cases where a type 2 has become insulin dependent and then improves their insulin sensitivity, no longer Continue reading

No, there is no ‘miracle recipe’ that cures diabetes

“Dr Jaime Dy-Liacco has finally found a remedy for diabetes […] He created a mixture containing the minerals required to fight against diabetes. The ingredients: 12 pieces of sweet pepper, 2 raw eggs, ½ teaspoon of sea salt,” an online Senegalese newspaper recently reported.
“Dice and crush the peppers in order to combine them with the eggs. Then add ½ a teaspoon of sea salt. Lo and behold, your remedy is ready and you can drink it,” the publication added. It was relaying an article published by protegetasante.net, a news site which claims to provide natural methods for curing oneself.
Is it possible to be cured of diabetes using such a recipe? We checked.
What proof is there?
We found a video on YouTube in which Dy-Liacco talks about his recipe that “cures diabetes in five minutes”, but were unable to find his contact details to request proof of this claim.
Africa Check also tried in vain to get in touch with the department of health of the Philippines. However, its website does not contain any information about Dy-Liacco or his anti-diabetes recipe.
He also has not published anything in a scientific journal, Dr Gojka Roglic from the World Health Organisation’s department for management of noncommunicable diseases, disability, violence and injury prevention, told Africa Check.
“I couldn’t find any trace of a scientific evaluation of this ‘miraculous’ solution for curing diabetes,” Roglic said.
“There’s nothing more to say. No trace of any scientific proof.”
‘Be careful of fortune tellers’
Director of the Mark Sankalé Diabetes Centre i Continue reading